Foundations for Writing

August 27, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
71 Comments

Dilbert on the dangers of autocorrect

August 27, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
57 Comments

Learning about Japanese American internment camps

I don’t usually post reflections in this blog; however, the St. Cloud Times’ article about the Smithsonian exhibit on Japanese Americans that I blogged about the other day got me to thinking about a personal memory—as has the continuing crisis at our southern border and the forced incarceration of immigrants.

When I was a freshman in high school, I needed to write a research paper and couldn’t come up with a topic. My history teacher suggested that I write about the Japanese internment camps populated after Pearl Harbor or about the Nisei (ethnic Japanese born in America to Japanese-born immigrants, Issei). I went home and asked my dad if he knew anything about this. He responded by going to get a book he owned that I’d never seen before—Yankee Samurai: The Secret Role of Nisei in America’s Pacific Victory—and showing me a picture of his best friend, Jerry (Jiro) Katayama, who was a decorated Nisei who served in Military Intelligence in Leyte (an island in the Phillipines) and Okinawa during World War II while his family was incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp in California. His family lost everything.

I knew Jerry really well: he played golf with my dad, ate dinner at our house often, and fell asleep on the couch watching TV with my dad. And I didn’t know anything about this aspect of his personal history or about the internment camps. It wasn’t in any of the history books. And although I don’t remember much about writing my paper, I remember that I was really angry when I wrote the paper and for some time after—not only angry that this had happened to Jerry and his family and in our country, but also angry that our history books didn’t talk at all about this. This is the first time I realized that history could be selective and that our country did things that were, to put it politely, wrong.

I do remember talking to my dad at that time about Jerry’s personal and military history. My dad was really proud of Jerry, who had given him the book and had, as a good friend, talked a lot about his experience. (My brother Bob also talked with Jerry about it after he finished his military service.) But I didn’t talk to Jerry about this: I was young and felt it was too private.

I have my own copy of the book with Jerry’s picture and have also found that Jerry (Jiro) is included in the Japanese American Service Committee (now JASC)’s Legacy Center Archives, where I found this picture and other images and documents about Jerry (http://www.jasc-chicago.org/legacy-center-archive-library/).

The group, located in Chicago, helped with resettling Japanese Americans after the war and has continued to preserve historical material from the Japanese American community in the area, making it available for research and educational activities. They also seek “to preserve and promote community heritage and common understanding of the Japanese American experience as an integral part of American history.”

Other groups and individuals clearly do this too; for instance, this history is the focus of the Smithsonian exhibit. As another example, George Takai talks a lot (on Twitter) about his family’s experience incarcerated in camps—in fact, has a recently published graphic novel about it—They Called Us Enemy—and also has responded frequently to current government actions on immigration, including that recent announcement that they planned to use a Japanese internment camp to house immigrants detained at the Mexican border. (This didn’t happen since the public uproar was really loud.) However, not everyone is so forthcoming about their own experiences. For instance, Roy Saigo, who was SCSU president from 2000-2007, wouldn’t talk about being incarcerated as a Japanese American when he was very young (5 or so). In fact, when I heard about this background, I was going to ask him about it and tell him about Jerry and was advised by several people in Administration not to do either.

I apologize for writing such a long posting. But last year I saw a map of relocation centers housing the immigrant children taken from their parents, and one of them is in Bartlett, IL, where my brother Jim lives. And a few weeks ago when my nephew moved from California to Texas with his wife and two children — all blondes, he reported that he was stopped in a long line by Homeland Security at the border between Southern California and Arizona and again at the border between Arizona and Texas. The ramifications of these government actions are more far reaching than is perhaps apparent.

In any case, I’d recommend going to see the Smithsonian exhibit at the Stearns History Museum if you can.

August 25, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
37 Comments

Why a Smithsonian exhibit on Japanese-Americans and World War II is coming to Stearns

The article title appearing on today’s St. Cloud Times is “Smithsonian exhibit details an ‘injustice’: Display tells stories of Japanese Americans’ Internment,” and the lead describes the personal history of Sally Sudo, now an Edina resident.

ST. CLOUD — Sally Sudo was among hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals incarcerated in U.S. internment camps during World War II.

At six years old, Sudo and her family were forcibly removed from their home in Seattle and incarcerated until Aug. 18, 1945. The 83-year-old Edina resident spent first, second and third grade in an internment camp.

The Stearns History Museum is showcasing stories like hers by hosting “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II.”

The traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit opens Sept. 3 with images, personal stories and objects from people incarcerated at internment camps. The museum will also include local exhibits from the era.

One image of the traveling exhibit shows the Mochida family, wearing identification tags,
as they wait for a bus. The family was forced to leave their nursery and greenhouse
operation in Eden, California in May 1942. (Photo: Dorothea Lange, Courtesy of National Archives)

I encourage you to visit this local exhibit, which will be in St. Cloud from September 3rd-January 5th. The cost for adults is $7.

The article also reports on Japanese Americans who were removed from camps and brought to Minnesota to Camp Savage, which “was chosen as the Japanese language training facility for U.S. troops in World War II.” Many (and their relatives) “in Stearns County stayed in the area because their relatives came in the service during World War II. ”

This story has reminded me of Jerry (Jiro) Katayama, my father’s best friend. Jerry was a decorated Nisei (second generation Japanese American) who served in Military Intelligence in Leyte (an island in the Phillipines) and Okinawa during World War II while his family was incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp in California. His family lost everything. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jerry recently as immigrants at our southern borders have been incarcerated in camps (and one Japanese internment camp was almost used to house these immigrants). George Takei has also talked a lot about the internment recently too, linking it to current treatment of immigrants. Takei’s graphic novel memoir, They Called Us Enemy, tells the story of his family’s incarceration after Pearl Harbor and their experiences after the camps closed.

August 25, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
42 Comments

“Court revives St. Cloud couple’s lawsuit opposing state’s same-sex discrimination law”

Here’s the lead from Alyssa Zaczek’s front page article in today’s St. Cloud Times.

ST. PAUL — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a judge should not have dismissed a lawsuit challenging a provision of the Minnesota Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In a 2-1 decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul ruled that Carl and Angel Larsen, the owners of Telescope Media Group, can pursue claims that the provision violates their constitutional rights to free speech and to freely exercise their religious beliefs.

You’ll find the full article here:

https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2019/08/23/court-revives-st-cloud-couples-lawsuit-opposing-discrimination-law/2096659001/

Such cases reinforce the local impacts of decisions made by presidentially appointed federal judges. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over 10 districts in the Midwest, including the district of Minnesota. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Eighth_Circuit) provides this helpful map of this jurisdiction based upon information from the 8th’s website (https://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/)

August 24, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
46 Comments

Pitts on U.S. racial history articles

Leonard Pitts, Jr., who writes a regular opinion column for the Miami Herald, tweeted about two published pieces yesterday — one his own piece and the other an interesting New York Times’ piece. Here are both tweets, which include links to the articles. Pitts’ columns are always interesting, thoughtful reading, and he tackles difficult stuff. Kevin Kruse, the author of the Time’s article, is an historian who specializes in modern American political history (from the Civil War forward) and is among a group of very active historians on Twitter (https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse)

Here’s my piece on the 400th anniversary of American slavery.https://t.co/2UF3fNnqpE

— Leonard Pitts, Jr. (@LeonardPittsJr1) August 24, 2019

Fascinating. Newspaper articles about U.S. racial history rarely teach me something I never knew, but this one does.

How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam https://t.co/spewQ5RK3Y

— Leonard Pitts, Jr. (@LeonardPittsJr1) August 23, 2019

August 24, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
53 Comments

Two articles from yesterday’s Washington Post

These articles—opinion pieces from the Washington Post— popped up on my Twitter feed. The first was written after some white folks made racist comments to a journalist regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and the second responds to a plan to end gun violence from students who survived Parkland. The second includes a video interview with a few of the students.

Dear fellow white people: Here’s what to do when you’re called racist. Respectfully, @RCHains https://t.co/OoJdvy80HF

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) August 23, 2019

"More than anything, what we are seeking to do is be intersectional. We know and acknowledge every day that gun violence prevention is not just about preventing mass shootings."

More at @washingtonpost: https://t.co/AV6e0sQ9wX

— The Marshall Project (@MarshallProj) August 21, 2019

August 23, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
43 Comments

Dan Rather on “moments of struggle and setback”

We all have moments of struggle and setback. That is part of human life, and it has been ever thus. I came across this haiku that spoke to me in a moment of quiet reflection:
I write, erase, rewrite,
Erase again, and then
A poppy blooms

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 21, 2019

August 23, 2019
by Judith Kilborn
284 Comments

This podcast series, like The 1619 Project, is a publication of the New York Times.

SCSU Site for English 191